Football Lookahead: Dragons Look to Surpass .500 Mark Against Hornets

October 4, 2012

CAMERON - Having squared its record at 3-3, the Cameron football team remains hopeful of ending a nine-year West Virginia Class A playoff drought this fall.

The Dragons last appearance in postseason play occurred during the 2003 season but the closing schedule looks favorable for Coach Jim Rogers' charges beginning with Friday night's home contest against winless Hundred (0-6).

Their stiffest challenge would be a road test against unbeaten Clay-Battelle (6-0) in Week 8, followed by regular-season ending contests against two struggling teams, Bellaire St. John Central and Bridgeport.

''We're pointing for a strong finish. That is our goal," Rogers said following last week's 40-18 victory against Paden City.

Even though the visiting Hornets appear headed toward a second straight winless season, Rogers indicated he was planning a busy week on the practice field getting his troops ready for Friday night.

''We're going to coach harder this week than we have all season," he promised. ''Looking at the films we need to polish up a lot of stuff. Scotty Holt (defensive coordinator) will be working to correct some things with the defense and Eric James (offensive coordinator) will be gettng the offense ready.We need to get better if we want to get in the playoffs.''

Another reason to step things up on the practice field could be that the starters didn't get much playing time in the Paden City victory. ''We ran up a 40-6 lead by halfltime and played our jayvees the second half," Rogers pointed out.

Cameron got another strong game from 6-8 sophomore quarterback Logan Routt as he completed 7 of 10 passes for 210 yards, including scoring tosses to seniors Mark Walker and Ivan Hall. The rushing attack, thanks to a dominating effort up from the offensive line, helped a couple of runners exceed the century mark. Devin Starcher, another senior, ran for 121 yards and two touchdowns while junior Hunter Yoders found the end zone once and collected 105 yards from scrimmage.

''Routt's growing up a little bit. Not in size though," said Rogers as his chuckle could be heard over the phone while he talked about the Dragons' rangy quarterback. ''He's getter better picking out his receivers. We probably could have thrown a lot more but I wanted to work on the running game."

For the season, Rout reached the 1,200-mark in passing yardage last week as he continued to move up the ladder among the Ohio Valley's leading small school quarterbacks. His two TD passes gave him nine overall, matching the number of interceptions he's had so far.

Meanwhile Yoders surpassed the 400 mark in rushing yardage with a total of 405 yards and five touchdowns on 64 attemps and Walker now has 445 receiving yards. His 24 catches this season have produced five TDs.

A victory against Hundred would give the Dragons their first two-game winning streak of the season. They've been dealing with a lose, win scenario through the first six weeks.